• Ad Age, Thursday, July 9, 2009 10:32 AM

In the past few months, Burger King has seemed to establish a pattern of running offensive ads in one market or another that create a media storm of criticism. It then pulls the ads with apologies, Emily Bryson York and Rupal Parekh report. The most recent offense is a campaign in Spain that depicts a Hindu goddess atop a ham sandwich with the caption: "A snack that is sacred."

"While Burger King isn't new to edgy ads, the pattern of offense, advertising retractions and free media has become predictable, and more frequent," Bryson York and Parekh write. BK has repeatedly denied that its edgy U.S. agency, Crispin Porter & Bogusky, is behind the strategy -- or that creating offensive ads is a "strategy" at all.

The Chicago Tribune, meanwhile, confirms a Reuters report that BK has asked franchisees to vote on the idea of dropping the price of a double cheeseburger to $1 -- about half of what it now costs in most markets. It would be a bold gambit, reports Mike Hughlett, that would, in the words of one franchisee, "raise some eyebrows."

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